Veneration, Violence, and the Dominican National Flag

Latin American Studies is pleased to invite you to a public lecture by one of our program's Fellow for 2021-22. Join us!

About the Presentation
Dominican poets, historians, and intellectuals have dedicated evocative verses and extensive analysis to the state’s flag since its first iteration in 1844. These intellectuals depicted the flag as a shorthand for expansive national inclusion. Yet, an analysis of historical and contemporary discourses about the flag reveals it has been and remains contested ideological terrain. Rather than being a symbol of a-priori agreement on what and who the nation is, the flag is a tool that reveals the lack of consensus on what Dominicanidad is and who fits within it. The use of the Dominican flag and derivations of it in Dominico-Haitian cultural spaces and LGBTQ spaces reveals that attempts by conservative nationalists to retain full control over the meaning and mobilization of the flag have been and remain a contested and incomplete project.

About the Presenter
Mónica Espaillat Lizardo is a Latin American Studies Fellow for 2021-22, and a Vanier Scholar currently completing a PhD in History and the Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. Her research interests and current focus lies in the Spanish Caribbean. Her dissertation examines the rendering of legal citizenship and social articulations of belonging in the Dominican Republic from 1930 onward. It also includes analysis of the efforts of Dominicans of Haitian descent, Black Dominicans, and Queer Dominicans to counter a national state project that deemed them “impossible citizens”.